SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Within minutes of being sworn in last year, President Trump suspended a process that had allowed migrants to schedule appointments to seek asylum in the U.S. Thousands of migrants from around the world remain in limbo at the border with Mexico, and many are now filing asylum applications with the Mexican government. Nina Kravinsky reports.
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NINA KRAVINSKY, BYLINE: At the side of the road just steps from the U.S. border, Yessica Minero and her husband, Antonio Acevedo, are selling tamales, just like the ones they used to make at home in El Salvador, sweet ones and savory.
YESSICA MINERO: (Speaking Spanish).
MCCAMMON: "People like them because we make them spicy," Minero tells me. They've set up shop underneath a highway sign, reading Frontera USA, selling meals to the constant flow of drivers heading north.
MINERO: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: "Many people, when they pass, say get in. We'll take you," she adds. But the couple has spent the year stuck in Nogales. They narrowly missed their January 18 U.S. asylum appointment by just over an hour, delayed when they were stopped by Mexican police for a routine search. Two days later, President Trump took office and canceled all asylum appointments, and the process has never restarted.
MINERO: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: "It's incredible, but it's true - already a year in Nogales," Minero says. After fleeing threats from organized crime in El Salvador, they're now applying for asylum in Mexico. They're among thousands of migrants from around the world who, blocked from the U.S., are turning to Mexico for safety.
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KRAVINSKY: Across the street at the Kino Border Initiative shelter, tables and chairs sit empty. The flow of migrants to the U.S.-Mexico border has nearly stopped. About a month after Trump closed the U.S. border, Kino's in-house lawyer, Rafael Chee, began helping migrants apply for asylum in Mexico. Eleven months later, none of his 14 active cases have been resolved, despite Mexico's promise to generally decide claims in 45 days.
RAFAEL CHEE: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: The asylum-seekers he serves are getting desperate, Chee says. The months have stretched on for Diego. We're only using his first name because he left Ecuador after violent extortionists attacked him in his home. The 62-year-old civil engineer narrowly missed securing an asylum appointment before Trump shut down the process.
DIEGO: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: "Sometimes I wake up wondering why I did it, why I made the journey, and why I'm still here," Diego says. Despite everything, including being unable to work, he tries to stay positive. Under Mexican law, asylum-seekers are supposed to be issued temporary documentation, allowing them to work and access basic services while their cases are processed. But Mexico has drastically reduced the number of documents it issues, a shift refugee agencies say began under pressure from the Biden administration in an effort to curb migration.
DIEGO: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: "This process isn't easy," Diego says. "You have to have patience." And so Diego whiles away his days in the shelter, watching training videos on YouTube, trying to stay up to date for any future job.
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KRAVINSKY: Back on the other side of the street, Minero and Acevedo are also waiting, hoping to be reunited with their daughter and granddaughters. They left them in southern Mexico more than a year ago, knowing the journey north was too dangerous. They can barely afford the one room they rent in Nogales with the money they're making selling food on the street. If there's no decision by this summer, Minero says they plan to return to El Salvador.
MINERO: (Speaking Spanish).
KRAVINSKY: "Either we risk our lives there," Minero says, "or we keep trying to hold on here." For NPR News, I'm Nina Kravinsky in Nogales, Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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